Pearland opens tourney with tense 52-48 triumph

Published 3:50 pm, Thursday, December 5, 2013

By ROBERT AVERY

ravery@hcnonline.com

HOUSTON - Robert Sneed stripped an Elkins ballhandler of the ball as he was going in for a possible tying score, allowing Pearland to escape the Clear Lake High School gym with a tense 52-48 victory in a first-round game of the 81st annual Carlisle-Krueger Classic Thursday night.

After Sneed picked the ballhandler’s pocket in the final seconds, he fed the ball to Michael Edie, who created the final score.

Providing the difference was Devon Begley, whose two free throws with 24 seconds was enough to keep the Knights at arm’s length.

The contest had overtime written all over it when Elkins’ Ken Busby, from the right corner, drained a 3-point goal. His tying bucket that made it a 48-48 game was the end result of the Knights hurrying the ball down the court after Pearland converted one-of-two from the foul line.

Only leading 38-37 after three periods, Pearland inched the advantage up to 46-41 on a big Jaron Stevenson 3-point goal that broke a tie, followed by buckets from Jeremy Sneed and Ryan Richie.

But back came Elkins and scores from Anietie Jack and Busby to create a one-point deficit again. Begley and Sneed could have put it away with consecutive trips to the foul line, but after converting just 2-of-4, it opened the door for Elkins’ tying bucket and a 48-48 game.

Pearland advances to the quarterfinals where they’ll play the winner of the Clear Springs-Tuloso Midway game Friday afternoon at 1:30 in the Krueger Field House on the Clear Lake High campus. A victory there will send the team to an 8 p.m. assignment in the semifinals against either Clear Lake or Texas City.